Cultured. On Sunday 15.02.26
Our weekend edition for longer reads and cultural pointers
Welcome to the third instalment of Cultured. On Sunday - our weekend edition which encourages taking an extra moment or two to sit down with a cuppa and enjoy some of our longer reads and recommendations.
This week, we hear from Maxïmo Park’s frontman, Billingham-born Paul Smith ahead of a double date with Newcastle City Hall as the band bring their tour celebrating 20 years of A Certain Trigger to a close.
There’s nostalgia of the very best kind in our latest From the Vaults, as I (Sam) continue to mine memories of a childhood spent wandering the corridors and studios of Tyne Tees Television in the eighties. This week’s instalment recalls how The Tube played its part in the early sparks of Tina Turner’s meteoric comeback.
Elsewhere, David Whetstone reports back from the latest staging of Berwick Shines’ Litany for the Border; there’s reviews of Mamma Mia, Matilda the Musical and Mary Shelley while our From the Bookshelf column rides the renewed wave of enthusiasm for Wuthering Heights.
On screen, resident box-set enthusiast Michael Telfer takes us on a once-around the TV phenomenon that is Fallout. On stage, we talk to Kelly Rickard who is taking on MC duties for today’s Sunday for Sammy fundraising concerts at the Newcastle Utilita Arena.
Photographer Maria Maza also shares a glimpse of the people, places and fleeting moments she has captured through her lens - and, because no good Sunday is complete without something delicious, there’s a Michelin-plated recipe from Restaurant Hjem chef Alex Nietosvuori to tempt you into the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy it all.
In a series of recollections, Sam Wonfor is sharing her rather special back catalogue of memories of and personal connection to the iconic 1980s music show, The Tube and other telly treasures.*
*First published during Cultured. North East’s time as the arts and culture section for the region’s subscription platform, The QT
When The Tube helped Tina turn things around
I always like catching up with Alison Gwynn, the chief exec of North East Screen who continues to pour her considerable talents and passion for the region into building a sustainable landscape for our TV and film makers.
One of my favourite conversations with her involved a recounting of the many Friday nights she spent in the audience for The Tube.
A 15-year-old Alison was a regular down at Studio Five on Friday teatimes in the early 80s when Tyne Tees Television on Newcastle’s City Road became a magnet for the music industry – whether it was legends, the latest hot young thing or unsigned acts looking for a riff-laden leg up.
“I was absolutely obsessed with Heaven 17… and then out comes what I thought was this old woman dressed in a shammy leather…. obviously, later I found out it was Tina Turner unveiling the next big stage of her career.”
I just laughed out loud again while pasting it into this week’s dive into The Tube archives to flesh out a Top 40 moments list I started with my Dad, (director Geoff Wonfor) a week before the 40th anniversary of the show, and – as it turned out – four weeks before his final credits rolled.
The first chosen moment was Tube presenter, Jools Holland sitting down at the piano with New Orleans legend, Fats Domino.
We’ve also had Roland Gift remembering the day The Tube film crew descended and ended up making what became the official video for the Fine Young Cannibals’ debut hit, Johnny Come Home.
This week, nudged by Alison’s excellent recollection of the day she wanted Tina Turner to get a shift on, so Heaven 17 could take centre stage, I’m taking a look at the two occasions when the Queen of Rock and Roll and The Tube crossed paths.
Heather Slater is the manager and events planner for FORUM Books. A life long reader and passionate advocate for women’s voices in classics and contemporary literary fiction, Heather was shortlisted for Bookseller of the year at the British Book Awards in 2024. You can find her regular book reviews on Instagram
Wuthering Heights has been gracing the shelves of bookshops for nearly 180 years and like many classics, we would sell a handful of copies each year but since January as the hype has slowly built for Emerald Fennell’s film sales have gone wild.
Brontë mania has arrived in the North East. The fact that one film has created so much hype for a classic novel is nothing short of wonderful. There is no doubt that Fennell’s film will divide its audience, but she is keen to say that the film is heavily influenced by how she felt about the novel in her teens. As a massive fan of the Brontës as a teenager, I can see why she wishes to curate her own homage to this beloved novel.
There is no typical Wuthering Heights buyer either; from those that have never read the book and swept up in the hype, to mothers and grandmothers wanting to buy a copy for the teenage girls in their lives only united really by the fact on the whole it’s mainly been women.
Essie Fox’s Catherine was released this week perhaps not with the fan fair of the movie, but it certainly deserves as much attention.
A brilliant revisit to the novel but this time told from the point of view of our heroine Catherine Earnshaw. The moors come alive in Fox’s work as well considering some of the key plot points and devices that by all accounts that the film disregards.
There is a Wuthering Heights out there for everyone.
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week’s choice is a post-apocalyptic series, that is so much fun you might just stop worrying and love the bomb…
Last month the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic measure of how close we supposedly are to blowing ourselves up, frying ourselves, or generally making Earth uninhabitable, moved closer to kaboom o’clock than at any point since the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists dreamt it up in 1947.
The Amazon Prime team responsible for marketing the newly released Season 2 of its post-apocalyptic action-comedy-drama Fallout probably couldn’t believe their luck.
The retail and streaming giant’s latest big-budget TV show is the adaptation of a long-running and much-loved series of video games that are set in a version of the United States that has been pretty much eviscerated by nuclear war.
Season 1 starts before the bombs drop, in a version of 1950s Americana where nuclear power fuels everything and the richest families have paid significant sums to reserve spaces in underground vaults where they can hopefully survive Armageddon.
We’ve been asking North East photographers to open up their archives and select a double handful of images which encapsulate life as they’ve captured it
Growing up in Madrid, Maria Maza admits to being a bit of an annoying child when it came to photography.
“My dad was a keen amateur photographer, nothing fancy, point and shoot stuff, 35mm colour film and slides, but he had a good eye and taught me a few basics of composition.
“I must have internalised some rules, because I remember telling grown-ups how they should have framed their shots differently, like avoiding cutting people’s heads off!”
Since those first adventures behind the camera, the now Newcastle-based photographer says she has “taken up” photography a dozen times.
“I’d get a new camera, be excited to explore the world anew with it, go at it for a while, and then get discouraged and put things on hold… I was easily discouraged!
“I never thought to do a course or learn “properly”, which probably would have helped me stick with it. When I got my first mirrorless camera in 2014 I thought, this is it! But I had young kids and I couldn’t dedicate the time I wanted to it.”
It was around eight years ago when Maria carved some time out for herself and picked up a camera again — and this time, she kept at it.
Alex Nietosvuori was the chef who brought Northumberland its first Michelin Star when he opened Restaurant Hjem in the village of Wall in 2019 with his partner (now wife) Ally Thompson-Nietosvuori.
After closing Hjem on New Year’s Eve, Ally and Alex are currently enjoying a residency at the South Causey Inn, County Durham while their next ambitious venture takes shape.
Scheduled to open in late 2026, Freyja will be a restaurant with rooms in the grounds of Close House in Wylam. You can sign up for updates at restaurantfreyja.co - but in the meantime, why not see if you can cook like a Michelin starred chef.
Celeriac Gnocchi with Comté Béchamel
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the Gnocchi
210g milk
70g butter
170g flour
4 whole eggs
170g roasted celeriac purée
200g Comté, finely grated
Nutmeg, to taste
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
For the Béchamel
40g butter
40g flour
500g milk
150g Comté, finely grated
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
For the Garnish
50 g toasted almonds, roughly chopped
150 g mustard cress
Method
Celeriac Purée
Peel and dice the celeriac.
Roast at 180°C until completely soft and lightly caramelised.
Pass through a fine sieve for a smooth purée.
Weigh out 170g and set aside.
Gnocchi
In a saucepan, bring the milk and butter to a boil.
Add the flour and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously for about 5 minutes until a smooth dough forms and pulls away from the sides.
Transfer to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix briefly to cool slightly.
Add the grated Comté.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition until glossy and fully incorporated.
Add the celeriac purée and mix on medium-high speed for about 3–5 minutes until smooth.
Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag.
Béchamel
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes without browning.
Gradually add the milk, whisking continuously until smooth and thickened.
Add the grated Comté and stir until fully melted.
Strain and keep warm.
To Cook & Assemble
Bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil.
Pipe the gnocchi mixture directly into the water, cutting with scissors to your desired size.
When the gnocchi float to the surface, cook for 30-60 seconds more, then remove with a slotted spoon.
(Optional chef’s step) Toss the gnocchi in brown butter for extra flavour.
Plate the gnocchi and spoon over the Comté béchamel.
Finish with toasted almonds, mustard cress, and freshly grated Comté.
Serve immediately.